British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
